Kinfolk Flower Potluck

Kinfolk Mag in partnership with Eva's Garden and Beacon Hill Bistro hosted an afternoon of garden tours, flower gathering and a beautiful meal at Eva's Garden near Dartmouth MA.
I had a chance to meet some wonderful people, learn a bit about how things grow (I have the world's worst gardening skills) and just be out in the sun a bit!

I couldn't get over how beautiful the table awaiting us was. The decor consisted mainly of fresh flowers, branches, simple white dinnerware, brown paper with a d.i.y. stencil print and a lot of sunshine!

After the week that was in Boston, it was nice to be out and see nature work so beautifully. The little green plants pushing through the as-yet cold ground was not a lost metaphor on all of us.

I think I just stood and stared at the ground at them when I found this!

 My mother's well-loved Jawaja bag found itself full of flowers on our foraging adventure.

I was loving the subtle colors on the table too!

Josh Lewin (of the Beacon Hill Bistro and one of the co-hosts) works his magic with roasted veggies!

While Josh and his crew were prepping for dinner, the rest of us spent some time putting together these flowers:

This is Diana, my wonderful friend, who told me about this event and is usually a gateway for me to discover amazing things about my neighborhood!

Diana introduced me to Rebecca (who offered to do the long drive from Boston, thanks so much!) who was a delight to talk with. So incredible when you meet a new person and feel like you've known them forever!

As the weekend approaches, I do hope yours is filled with friends, nature and simple well-crafted meals! xo, Chitra

University of Hawaii visit

Pretty excited to share with you the details of my trip to Hawaii; I was invited by the Department of Architecture at the University of Hawaii to do workshops on design as well as present my work at Kara. I don't think a blog-post would do justice to this experience, but here's a short photo-essay:

I stayed on a quite part of this spectacular coastline in Waikiki.

Sunrise over the beautiful Kapiolani park and Diamond Head Crater Park

Monday started bright and early at the Dept of Architecture at the Univ of Hawaii

They're working on a small project in branding I did with them over the week.

Loved seeing their stuff lying around; reminds me of my studio desk most days!

We divided them into small groups for reviewing each other's work.

I'm getting ready for my talk here; was super thrilled to see the turnout and the Q&A afterwards!

Maria Simon (l) and Erin Yuasa (r) were kind enough to take me on a tour of the University; Maria teaches in the Dept of Architecture; Erin teaches in the Ceramic Dept. Both are fellow alums from my grad school, the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Beautiful textures in remnants of a clay piece by Phoebe Cummings

This tree, outside the art department, was incredible to look at!

Erin makes beautiful work about re-purposed clay stepping stones, made in the shapes of found containers

These beautiful stemware by Erin's boyfriend Mark Mitsuda, a talented glass-artist and educator

Erin and Mark in his office at Punahou High School. They were kind enough to take me on a tour of this amazing institution!

This beautiful school is also where President Obama went to school at!

This is the Glass and Ceramic workshop areas of the school; loved the airy spacious space!

Here are some other fun things I did:

Lazy Sunday breakfast underneath the lychee tree with Aki (l) and Maria (r)

En route to Bellows beach, near the historic air force station with the same name

Nomoola does some incredible work on sustainable food practices; found their stand at the lunch-stop.

The sunken warship USS Arizona at the Pearl Harbor memorial; the colors are from the oil seeping out of the ship.

I also did a solo road-trip to the north shore of Oʻahu; the landscape was spectacular!

This lil dude was sunning himself on the coast when I got there; hello Sea Turtle!

Did I say how incredibly simple and delicious the food was? :)

Some life-truths I picked up:

Nature is the best pedicure, ever!

All food tastes great, if you're at the beach with friends! (with Tim & Maria)

Traveling in an open jeep can can make your face & hair happy! (with Aki & Maria)

Our fabric works with any lifestyle, any part of the world! (here Aki confirms it with the Infini)

Our new metallic friend

So the past few months, we've been slowly growing our team and office-space as we work with a steadily growing list of clients (yay!)

The most visible change, if you came to visit our studio, would be a re-purposed shipping container sitting next to our office space. Take a peek:

The container in its new avatar as our studio annexe.

Here's why we did it:
• We needed more storage space.
• We had no time to make a new building.
• We did not want to disrupt the land and trees by new construction.
• We wanted a cost-effective and eco-friendly option
• The new space had to be airtight and waterproof to protect our fabrics. 

Since Kochi is a port city, we met with some folks who were repurposing shipping containers and this seemed to be an obvious solution. They cut out a window on one side for ventilation, fitted some metal shelves in it, painted it all over and voila: Instant-office!

Here is the container before it got glammed-up:

Here it is in the shipyard, waiting to be adopted!

This is our container's birth-certificate of sorts. Excited to see its path to our doorstep!

Two weeks ago, a big ol' truck showed up with our freshly repainted container atop it. A tough little crane was waiting to pick it up and drop it off next to our office.

I think they're pondering how this is going to work. Can you see the hook of the crane on top left of this photo?

Here's the big-little crane that picked it off the truck and put it in our yard.

Here's a cellphone-video that my dad took, of this whole process. The scary parts of a suspended container in mid-air are at the end of the video :)

It was plenty of drama, plenty of excitement, but everything worked out and now we've got an amazing new annexe to our studio.

Yay for more shelves!

Here is a view of its back window as it rests on cinder-blocks next to the studio.

I'm deciding what to paint on it, maybe our fabric patterns? Let us know if you have any fun ideas for this blank canvas. xo, Chitra.

All things Fair

Detail of a new drawing "One Billion Waiting and Watching" by Chitra

Today is known the world over as the International Women's Day. Historically its the day when garment workers in New York city in 1857 took to the streets to demand better working conditions and pay. In some parts of the world an equal rights issue is a thing of the past, in others its very much a current issue, if not a distant dream.

We, at Kara, are not specifically a women's organization (a number of our team and co-op members are men too), but we are definitely an organization that understands the challenges women face as they manage work and their families. This Women's Day we are thinking about the rights we all enjoy as humans. And to not forget those who are denied the basic respect, equality and dignity simply on the basis of gender.

This is one of the reasons why we feel today is an important day to share this milestone with you:

Our letter of acceptance to be a member of FTF India

The Fair Trade certification is more to us than a letter and a stamp; its a visible platform where we let our collaborators know that our fabrics are not only designed with lots of care but are created ethically and respectfully. We are so proud to be a part of this group and are inspired to see how good design and fair trade practices can revive an ancient artform!

Signing off with some images from Indu's latest visit to our weaving and tailoring co-ops. Have a wonderful day!

Indu with a couple of the co-op members

Indu at the tailoring co-op with its President (right) and team member (left)

The pre-looming team at work in the co-op.

A peaceful afternoon as the yarn hangs to dry (foreground) and the pre-looming goes on (background)